hobbygamers ~ View topic

yeps, it's the site for the tech team. Tentatively, here's a breakdown of what we are doing;

*Monitor player posts. In particular, we want to make sure that they are not cheating/conjuring stuff out of thin air. Now while everybody can request for edits, only b_b and i can actually edit, so I'll need to hand off more work.
*Dragon e-zine approval; whenever something as a player resource becomes available, we scan it and determine if it's open.
---erwin is currently monitoring the Wolves of Maldeen; he will deliver a report on this thread on or before July 9.
---Warforged is in limbo. I am not looking into it as according to the flavor department, we don't have warforged (as PCs) officially yet..
*Class. We're going to design the (codename) Skeletor Class, team, and this is our current main project.

Ok, I think we need to answer these questions to make Skeletor class:

(1)What is IT in the first place? I think this is the fluff team's work, but we need to know what it is first before we actually make mechanics here.
(2) What is his role? (defender, striker, leader, controller) Or a hybrid maybe?
(3)What is his power source? (arcane, divine, martial) Do we make a new one? Or do we use the other power sources stated in PHB (primal, ki/soul, psionic, elemental, shadow)?
(4)What are its key abilities? Usually there are just 3, but fighter has 4.
(5) What are its proficiencies (weapons and armor)? Also, does it get an implement of some sort?

I think no. 5 is not that important, but part of the questions nonetheless.

Wolves of Maldeen report:

The heroic feat, Against All Odds, is good, as it's not too strong.

The Pack Master (warlord paragon path) is somehow a bit strong, as it allows your allies to use your action point as a standard action, and at the same time allows them to move or shift. Though I don't think it's game breaking.

The powers are also great, especially the encounter power Manticore-and-Wyvern.

@erwin: Thanks. Based on your report, I opened up the Wolves as a player resource.

@tech team: I made up rules on catching-up xp:
XP post.
It's simple enough to understand, I think. But if the COPALs have proposal revisions to the rule, please feel free to do so.

I'm giving this one out to b_b, as he had the most experience with the 3.5 version. You have two weeks, what do with do with this?

4e Artificer from Dragon Magazine: Playtest Article

It doesn't really strike me as a leader, it's more of a controller imo. At the very least, it performs both roles quite well.

I'd say they have it about right, except there's not a wide range of powers available atm. It also has the distinction of being the only 4e class solely reliant on 2 abilities (most are reliant on 3). Will do more research on this later.

In conclusion, an Artificer makes an ideal 5th character. It can buff allies' AC when needed, and perform some controller roles when the party is up against mobs of enemies. I don't think it'd make a good main, though; when it comes right down to it, I'd still rather have a wizard or cleric in my party over the Artificer for as long as the associated roles haven't been filled yet.

New article is up.

Treasures of Ashardalon

Wanna read through it? I'm sure it's all about magic items XD

Come on erwin, when sharing an article you may want to do a synopsis/summary.

As much as I want to give some comments, I lack knowledge on magic item appreciation/criticism for now. I haven't actually read (just skimmed) the magic items part of PHB. Razz

So I have no idea whether they're actually good/bad/broken/awesome/unbalanced/etc.

I said synopsis not personal comments/opinions.

lol, why not just read it?

Good ol' Ashardalon... Last seen as a Binder Vestige iirc. He's the dragon with the heart of a Balor, right?

Ecology of the Dragonborn

Basically what you expect from Ecology of the xxx article. Description, physiology, psychology, culture, etc.
It has dragonborn feats, particularly affects dragon breath.

Backdrop: Cormyr

It's a Forgotten Realms backdrop, so i don't think well need the flavor on it.
What interest me is the 2 paragon paths inserted, the Draeven Marauder (fighter PP) and Luckbringer of Tymora (Cleric PP). There's also a heroic divinity for Tymora followers.

How's the work going, guys?

I will now update resources every month, instead of everytime it comes out. Otoh, the class design is not getting any progress at all. Sad

Two jobs for Tech Team. Volunteers?

The Unofficial Bard

The unofficial druid

Read thru it, analyze it, and tell me what you think. So far, I'm leaning towards allowing the bard and disallowing the druid. We don't know anything about the Primal Power Source yet, so there's nothing to compare it, to.

Only skimmed on both accounts, and I have to agree with BJ.

The bard looks well done, though I have to disagree with some elements, such as cantrips and able to choose any skill as trained (except Endurance)

The druid was weird. The fact that it has "hybrid" role was confusing enough, as it is already breaking the role which supposedly each class to do. And I didn't like it's mechanic on Wild Shape, giving defensive/offensive form. Also,

Yes, if the druid has anything going for him right now, it's the good page layout Laughing

.

Alternatively, we could just allow them as DM resources. PC's can't play them yet until the official comes out, but DM's who would need the bard or druid archetypes can design it from these.

As for the Bard, Tasha's Laugh is... strong @.@... A heroic tier stun attack...

It's already slated as official; I just haven't edited the thread yet... Laughing

RL work is getting in the way of valuable internet time. For the moment, you can tell everyone at the Bonethrall discussion that I gave the go-signal for the swordmage. I'll try to edit by Monday.

I've seen FR rpga review, and what i really liked about it (other than the swordmage Razz

) was regional benefits.
So I would like to propose regional benefits to the BT campaign setting as well. Well the real problem here is that BT isn't complete as a plane (am i right), so this might go on hold, but what do you think?

Too soon.

We need to work on the class first...

Tech Team Discussion:

BJ Recio: alam mo yung luckbringer of tymora?
erwin: uu
BJ Recio: gusto mo ng assignment tungkol dun?
erwin: ahaha, pde
erwin: san nga ulit yun? sa cormyr ba?
BJ Recio: yups
erwin: ahaha, ikaw sa marauder?
BJ Recio: yup. tsaka sa flavor nila pareho..
BJ Recio: ang main worry ko sa luckbringer, eh encounter yung level 20 daily nila.
BJ Recio: este, encounter yung level 20 power nila, when it should be daily.
erwin: lol
erwin: unga no
erwin: miscoloring?
erwin: wah, ang gulo nya
erwin: needs some errata me thinks
erwin: parehong encounter un attack powers
BJ Recio: it might be intentional, though; playing up the "lcky" card...
BJ Recio: "lucky"
BJ Recio: so basically, kung mas mahina siya sa ibang level 20 paragon powers in terms of damage et al, baka okay lang siya..
BJ Recio: check mo yung expected damage, and compare it with the other dailies from cleric PP's
erwin: pero grey yun heading color nun sa encounter attack 11, which supposedly red
erwin: ok, check ko
BJ Recio: wait, red siya sa kin... @.@
erwin: ??
erwin: grey sya sakin
erwin: kasin lakas nun daily ng cleric un encounter 20 nun luckbringer IMO
erwin: binase ko sya sa daily 19 ng cleric
erwin: check ko un other PP
erwin: *PP ng cleric sa PHB
IMO kasin lkas din
BJ Recio: kung ganun, siguro we should change it to daily nga.
erwin: ok lng
BJ Recio: wait; mahina yung sa luckbringer.
erwin: damage wise yes
erwin: pero the effect is strong IMO
BJ Recio: pero vulnerability rin kasi...
BJ Recio: okay. im sold.
BJ Recio: actually big points din yung may effect siya on a miss; usually walang ganun ang encounter powers.
BJ Recio: we'll change it to daily; pero post mo muna sa tech team thread para di ko malimutan

We're not making any progress with Skeletor, guys. I may decide to scrap it.

What do we do now? The tech team's current biggest challenge is to create something rules-wise that makes Bonethrall unique.

*Last edited by BJ on Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:38 am; edited 1 time in total*

Who wants to work on this?

Godforged Colossus
Epic Destiny
*Flavor: You slowly replace (or embed on top of) your body parts with Godstones. This will eventually turn you huge, (going through large first, of course), and probably give you divine powers.
*Pre-requisite. Forged
*21: Large Size, increase Str, Con by 2. Of course, this'll mean you can wield large weapons.
*24: Insert funky divine power here. Alternatively, we could give him that psychic damage aura from the Godforged Colossus monster, though im not sure as that says "minion killer" right there.
*26: Utility Daily. Stumped
*30: Change to Immortal Humanoid (Construct). Increase to Huge. Gain some other minor shyte.

I could help with some parts of the character creation. Especially the flavor implementation parts.

@oghma: With Skeletor, you mean? Okay, but if so, one of the first things we need to determine is how he looks like.

We may need the flavor team on this one.

Also, since his power source is divine, Skeletor will definitely need a Channel Divinity power or two.

The hard part about creating Skeletor, IMO, is that it's a controller, a role which haven't seen the "formula", so to speak. (defender = marks, strikers = extra damage, leader = healing power 2x encounter).